Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uunet!cos!fetter
From: fetter@cos.com (Bob Fetter)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: !?!?  FOO???
Message-ID: <32971@cos.com>
Date: 6 Jul 90 19:54:01 GMT
References: <54483@lanl.gov> <1990Jun21.160806.23396@gdr.bath.ac.uk> <385@necssd.NEC.COM>
Reply-To: fetter@cos.UUCP (Bob Fetter)
Organization: Corporation for Open Systems, McLean, VA
Lines: 17


  Does this mean that nobody remembers 'Smokey Stover', the comic strip
that had the alley cat in many of the panels which was always saying "foo"?

  This was running during the 30s and 40s, most certainly before Fortran
error codes *and* WWII.

  I seem to remember a reference to this in the old jargon files that
were on the net in the late 70's, but I'm not sure anymore.

  Between that, and the fat cook who always had buttons popping off and being
caught by a chicken, and other "hidden" sayings/messages, I almost now
consider 'Smokey Stover' to have been the 'Zippy' of the Depression.

  Not that I'm even *close* enough old to have read the originals.....

 -Bob-